USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 25
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had no sooner taken up its duties and began to feel its re- sponsibilities than he became more and more impressed with the need, and more and more apprehended the worth of a broader and more thorough scholastic preparation for his life work. He had the nerve to surrender a most promising practice, and to break away from the fascinating ties of part- nership with his father, whom he dearly loved and honored, in order better to qualify himself to enter and work on the higher planes of his profession. After eighteen months of practice with his father, he entered on his classical course, at Western Reserve college, Hudson, Ohio, in which he spent two years. At the close of his sophomore year, he entered Yale as junior, where he graduated in 1854. On leaving Yale, Dr. Sanders returned to Huron county, Ohio, and en- tered into partnership with Dr. A. N. Read, of Norwalk, assuming the place vacated by his father's retirement. He entered at once upon a large and lucrative practice, dividing its rewards and responsibilities with his partner. On the 25th October following, he married Albina G. Smith, of Cleveland, Ohio. Remaining in Norwalk until his father's decease (three and a half years), he became convinced that his health could not longer endure the strain of a ride embracing so large a field as is involved in a conjoint town and country practice, and removed to Cleveland. Soon after his arrival in that city, he was called on by an old and valued professional friend, who interested him by his experiences in the investi- gation of homœopathy. Doubting the practical merits of a theory with which he was not unfamiliar, he was invited by this friend to visit his patients with him, and judge for him- self as to its practical verities. This he was glad of the opportunity to do, and entered upon it with a determination earnestly and carefully to scrutinize his friend's cases, treat- ment, and results. They were submitted to a most rigid ex- amination and analysis. After a few months of such clinical observation, he became greatly interested, but not fully con- vinced. In order to enlarge the field of his observation and clinical inquiry, to the great surprise and mortification of his professional brethren, he entered his friend's office, and studied his clinical experiences almost exclusively for one year. His conviction became complete, and he at once gave in his adhesion to the principles of homeopathy, and then entered upon its practice. His great success and recognized ability led to his election, in 1859, to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the Homeopathic hospital college at Cleveland, and, in the following year, to the presidency of the same, which office he held until 1868. The college soon felt the force of his influence in establishing and maintaining an improved standard of culture and re- quirement. He was the first to suggest the application to medical examinations (and this college was the first medical school to adopt the plan) of written answers in examinations for degree as a substitute for the old thesis system, so capable of abuse. He was the first to suggest the application of the graded system of instruction to medical education, and this school was the first to adopt it. He has contributed largely to the reputation of the college in all the elements of its fame. He has given to it not only of his substance, but the best powers of his years. With the exception of two ses- sions, he has delivered the yearly course on obstetricy for over twenty years. He occupied the chair of physiology for one session, the chair of the principles and practice for two entire sessions, and delivered parts of this course for : two other sessions. In whatever department he lectured,
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his characteristics were pronounced and uniform, accurate, scholarly, and eminently practical. These qualities of his teaching secured the undivided and earnest attention of his pupils, who always became his enthusiastic admirers. In the department of his specialty, he has contributed valu- able papers to the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State, of which society he is and has long been the treasurer; to the American Institute of Homoeopathy, of which he has been once vice-president, and in which he held for a series of years the chairmanship of the bureau of obstetricy. He is much sought after, far and near, for consultation and help in diffi- cult and exigent cases, especially in obstetricy. He has five . children living, three sons and two daughters, on whom he is bestowing every possible privilege of education and culture. The doctor's eldest son, John Kent Sanders, a graduate of Illinois college, having passed his degree of doctor of med- icine, is now associated with his father in practice.
GREGORY, JOHN BELLI, chief engineer of the pub- lic works of the State of Ohio, was born in Scioto county, Ohio, May 29th, 1830. He is a son of Moses and Har- riet E. (Belli) Gregory, the former of whom was a native of Ross county, Ohio, and the latter of Scioto county. His paternal ancestry were residents of Virginia for many years back, and of English descent. His mother's ancestry were Kentuckians, and also of English stock. The maternal grandmother of Mr. Gregory, Cynthia Harrison, was a cousin of the hero of Tippecanoe. Her husband, Major John Belli, was a Frenchman, who emigrated to this country about the year 1781, and was appointed by General Washington dep- uty quartermaster-general for the Northwest, with the rank of major. He held a position at Fort Washington during the various campaigns with the Indians in the Northwest Terri- tory. In 1795 he resigned his military post, and turned his attention to financial and commercial pursuits. He aided in starting the first bank, the first Masonic Lodge, and the first newspaper ever established in Lexington, Ky. About the year 1800 he moved on a farm in Scioto county, Ohio, where he died in 1810. The paternal grandfather, David Gregory, was a mechanic, a machinist, and a man of powerful physical endurance. He built one of the first mills ever constructed on the Scioto river. His residence was near Jameson's tavern, not far from the historical spot called the "Hermit's Cave." He died about the year 1801. His widow removed to Chillicothe, where she was married to Henry Sheely, who, in 1805, re- moved with his family to Portsmouth, where the father of the subject of this sketch, Moses Gregory, was brought up. The early educational facilities of Moses Gregory were very mea- ger ; but so zealously did he occupy every spare moment in self-improvement that he became one of the cultured and learned men of his time and region, and was called upon to fill many important offices of public trust. During the keel- boat period of transportation he was for a few years a boat- captain on the Scioto and Kanawha rivers. Early in life he was apprenticed a tanner, but soon forsook this trade to en- gage in other pursuits. In 1824 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Scioto county under his uncle, William Carey, who died in the Autumn of 1826, just at the expiration of his official term. Moses Gregory was elected to succeed his uncle as sheriff, and re-elected in 1828, holding the office four years. In 1830 he was chosen auditor of his county, and by re-election held the position ten years. In 1841 and 1842 he was elected representative to the State Legislature
from the counties of Scioto, Gallia, and Lawrence, and in 1843 and 1844 was sent from the same district to the State Senate of Ohio. While he was a member of the State legis- lature he attended medical lectures in the evenings, and, upon completing his course, received the degree of doctor of medicine, though he never attempted to practice. He was a zealous member of the whig party, and was for many years very active in politics, being an eloquent and effective stump-speaker. From 1845 to 1851 he was city civil engineer of Portsmouth and surveyor of Scioto county. In 1847 and 1848 he built the Junior Furnace railroad, one of the first ever constructed in the State. In 1850 he was em- ployed by a company of mine speculators as surveyor and civil engineer on a mining expedition to California. The undertaking was unsuccessful, and after one year's absence on the voyage and in California Mr. Gregory returned to his home in Portsmouth. From 1851 to 1857 he was principally employed as a contractor in the construction of railroads in different parts of the State. The same year he retired to a farm a few miles below Portsmouth, known as the Lone Willow Farm. In 1865, his health failing, he moved back to Portsmouth, where, in 1871, he died. The subject of this biography, John B. Gregory, was brought up in Portsmouth, where he received his scholastic training, graduating from the high-school of the place at the age of twenty. In 1850 he was employed as division engineer on the Scioto and Hocking Valley railroad, and in 1853 was promoted to assist- ant civil engineer, superintending the completion of the road from Portsmouth to Hamden. He remained in this position till 1856. In the following year he was employed as engineer and surveyor in the construction of a blast furnace in Carter county, Kentucky, of which he was one of the projectors and part owner. In 1857 he was appointed by the board of pub- lic works resident engineer for the southern division of the Ohio canal. In 1858 and 1859 he was engaged in railroad engi- neering and in the running of railroads. In 1859 Mr. Greg- ory was elected a member of the board of public works, a position he held for three years. He was renominated in 1862, but was defeated with the rest of the republican State ticket. The same year he was made financial agent of the furnace company, filling that position till 1864, and at the same time rendering valuable service to the cause of the Union as military agent of the government, keeping watch of rebel movements, and reporting whatever was discovered to the Federal officers in the field and to Governor Dennison. In 1864 he was appointed by the treasury department at Washington to make a survey and execute a plat of the country along the Mississippi river, with a view to confisca- tion. In 1865 he removed his family to the furnace site in Kentucky, where he remained as manager of the business till 1867. In this year he sold his interest in the furnace and returned to Portsmouth. In 1868-69 he was engaged in en- gineering and constructing a turnpike road two miles out from Portsmouth, now forming a part of the Portsmouth and Buena Vista pike road. This was a work of considerable labor and one of the most difficult of the kind in Ohio, and was made under the greatest possible disadvantage. In 1869 the Atlantic and Lake Erie railroad company (now the Ohio Central) was formed, Mr. Gregory being selected as its chief engineer. In the autumn and winter of that year he made the surveys from Pomeroy to Toledo,- and completed them the following year, when work was begun, and continued under his supervision till the fall of 1871, when he resigned.
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In 1872 he was appointed on a commission for the inspection of the public works of the State, and was directed to report on their condition to the legislature. He was subsequently employed in laying out the Columbus and Ferrara railroad, now a branch of the Ohio Central railroad. He continued engineering and surveying during 1873 and 1874. During the years from 1876 to 1880, inclusive, he was city civil en- gineer of Portsmouth and surveyor of Scioto county, and in the mean time contracted and built twenty miles of the Scioto Valley railroad. May 22d, 1880, he was appointed by Gov- ernor Foster, and confirmed by the Senate, as chief engineer of the public works of the State, a position he is still occu- pying with great efficiency. December 2d, 1854, he was mar- ried to Miss Kate Smith, daughter of Thomas Smith, of Wheeling, West Virginia. The offsprings of this marriage were three children, two of whom are still living. Harry Gregory, the older son, died at the age of sixteen. The other two are Hiram D. and Harriet E. Gregory. The son is a civil engineer by profession, a graduate of the Ohio State University, and engineer in charge of the surveys of the Ohio Central railroad.
CROSS, D. W., of Cleveland, lawyer and capitalist, was born in Richland township, now called Pulaski, Oswego county, New York, November 17th, 1814. He received a lib- eral education at Hamilton Seminary, one of the first insti- tutions of learning in the State, and on leaving it, in 1836, he removed to Cleveland and commenced the study of law in the office of Payne & Wilson, who were then among the leading lawyers of the vicinity. In 1837 he was appointed to the office of deputy collector for the port of Cleveland. He still continued the study of law, and in due time was admitted to practice in the State and United States courts. The follow- ing eighteen years, with one vacation, were devoted to the service of the United States government. During this time he introduced many improvements in the management of the custom-house departments, in appreciation of which he at one time received a compliment from the Secretary of the Treasury, in the shape of a check for $500. His policy was ever to protect the interests of commerce. In 1844 he formed a law partnership with Robert Parks. who was collector for the port of Cleveland afterward under Pierce and Buchanan. The firm of Cross & Parks continued until the death of the latter, in 1860. In 1848-49 Mr. Cross was elected township clerk, an office which then existed for the purpose of collect- ing taxes for " outside lots," disbursing moneys for the poor, etc., an important office in those days. He was elected to this post by the largest majority ever given up to that time to a candidate for a city office, and had a majority in every ward. In 1849 he was elected to the city council. In 1855 he commenced investigating the coal deposits at Mineral Ridge, and, in company with the late Oliver H. Perry, pur- chased about one hundred and fifty acres of coal lands, be- sides leasing several tracts. The first cargo of Mineral Ridge coal ever brought to Cleveland was shipped by Perry, Cross & Co., the total cost delivered on the docks at Cleve- land being $2.90 the ton. The coal was shipped by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal. Mr. Perry's interest was pur- chased by Nathan P. Payne, in 1859, and the business con- tinued under the name of D. W. Cross. & Co. In 1860 the company formed a coalition with Lemuel Crawford, owner of the Chippewa and Brier Hill mines, which was discon- tinued at the expiration of one year. At this time lsaac
Newton was admitted to a share in the business, the firm being known as Cross, Payne & Co., and operations were commenced on a more extensive scale. They discovered the Summit Bank coal deposits, which they connected with the canal at Middlebury by a railroad three miles in length. They repaired the feeder canal from Middlebury to Akron, built extensive docks and shutes, capable of handling four to five hundred tons of coal each day, and employed a working force of about one hundred and fifty men. The coal was of superior quality, and the nearest mines to Cleveland then open. New lands were purchased and leased from time to time, tenement houses erected, and the business reduced to a system. In 1867 he partially retired from the coal business, retaining, however, his interests in coal lands, and continu- ing active in this and other business. He has been one of the most prominent in encouraging and developing the man- ufactures of Cleveland, fully realizing that those interests would be best subserved by bringing cheap coal to the mar- ket. His efforts in this direction have proved most success- ful. Fifteen years of his life have been devoted to the min- ing of coal in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He owns large coal interests in Brier Hill coal lands in the former State, and also in the coal lands of Straitsville in the latter. He is president of the Winslow Car Roofing Company, and of the Cleveland Steam Gauge Company, and is also a director and stockholder in the Amherst Stone Company. In his earlier years he was very fond of deer hunting, and was a very suc- cessful hunter. From 1838 he spent thirteen consecutive seasons in pursuit of this and other game in Paulding, Van Wert, and Henry counties, in the north-western part of Ohio. He is said to have killed the last deer in Cuyahoga county, in 1856, in the vicinity of Lake Abram. He is a member of the famous Winons Point shooting club, which owns about ten thousand acres of fine hunting ground in the vicinity of Sandusky Bay. On one of the annual excursions to this re- sort, he killed the largest number of wild geese ever killed by a member of the club. He is also a great lover of the fisherman's art, and, in company with Oliver Perry, was the first to discover trout fishing among the rocks in Lake Su- perior. In the matter of hunting and fishing Mr. Cross is an enthusiast, and he is also a scientist. He is the author of a most complete and exhaustive work on the subject, entitled " Fifty Years with the Gun and Rod," which he published in 1880, and dedicated to the members of the "Winons Point Club," the oldest organization of its kind in the State. This work is a remarkable one and of invaluable service to the sportsman. The whole matter is treated in a purely scientific manner, and the book is such as only a man who combines the gentlemanly and learned scholar with the sportsman of almost a life-time experience could produce. In it he gives page after page of the velocity of the different sizes of shot, the angles, the elevations, the power of the different weapons in use, the flight of the various birds, their times of incu- bation, and the various modes of rising and flight, to- gether with the speed of flight of the different species. Mr. Cross has been for a number of years a contributor to the col- umns of the Forest and Stream, of New York, and the Amer- ican Field, Chicago, and has aided persons in several States in the effort to transplant the wild celery ( Valisneria spiralis) and the giant lily ( Nelumbium) to marshes where waterfowl might be attracted to feed upon them. He has been at great pains to send seeds and roots of these wonderful food-plants to gen- tlemen in Massachusetts, Indiana, Illinois, and New York,
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- where they grow.
and to other parts of Ohio, as he has strong faith that these additions to the food which birds can find will result in attract- ing canvas-back ducks and other waterfowl to the marshes He, together with E. A. Scoville, with the aid of John Hyland, of Danville, New York, were the first to succeed in planting California mountain trout in the streams of Ohio. In the spring of 1880 they planted fifteen thousand of these fish in Ohio streams. In the spring of 1881 two were caught weighing over four ounces each, they being hardy and of very rapid growth. For the sportsman these fish are fine amusement, being a very "gamey" fish. In 1881 he purchased in Oswego county, New York, of Wm. C. Pierrepont, the Salmon River Falls tract, containing about three hundred acres of wild land, and about two miles of the river above and below the falls. Salmon were formerly very abundant in this river below the falls, but now mill-dams have obstructed their passage, and but few enter the river and none get to the fall-hole. Fishways are being put in, and it is hoped they will finally replenish this noble river with that splendid fish. Through the aid of Seth Green, State com- missioner of fish culture, John Hyland and C. H. Cross, he planted fifty thousand of these California mountain trout in that river and its tributaries. He was elected secretary of the celebrated military company, the Cleveland Grays, in 1837, and kept a thorough and correct history of the organization. The Cleveland Lyceum, an old-established and important debating society in early times, also elected him its secre- tary for some years, dating from 1839. In 1840 he married Miss Loraine P. Lee, of Bloomfield, New York. In 1873 his wife, with their only son, visited Europe for the benefit of her health. After an absence of about eighteen months she returned, and died January 23d, 1875.
QUAYLE, THOMAS, shipbuilder, Cleveland, was born on the Isle of Man, May 9th, 1811, and emigrated with his par- ents to this country, and settled in Cleveland, in 1827. In his native country he had commenced to learn his trade as ship- carpenter, continuing it on his arrival here. Being a very thorough workman, he speedily advanced, and in 1847 he engaged in the business of shipbuilding on his own account, forming a partnership with John Cody. This firm continued nearly three years, when Mr. Cody withdrew from the busi- ness, and went to California. Soon after, Mr. Quayle formed a partnership with Luther Moses, and later on with John Martin, when the business was considerably enlarged and extended. In one year this firm built no less than thirteen vessels. In the Spring of 1874 Mr. Martin died, and Mr. Quayle then formed a partnership with his sons, Thomas E. and George L., the firm then being Thomas Quayle & Sons. In 1880 Mr. Quayle withdrew from active business, and the firm at present writing (1882) is known as Thomas Quayle's Sons, comprising his three sons, Thomas E., William H., and George L. The firm has grown to be one of immense mag- nitude, and is one of the largest in the entire Northwest, build- ing crafts of all descriptions and dimensions. In 1881 they built several large steam-vessels. In 1882 they completed and launched one of the largest vessels ever built at the port of Cleveland, the City of Cleveland. This ship was so immense that on her first entry into port at Chicago she attracted a wondering crowd to the docks to see her. Old captains spoke of her as "the biggest thing they ever saw," her tonnage was immense, and her model magnificent. It is said that ves- sels of their build outnumber those of any other firm on the.
lakes-many of them remarkable for the elegance of their lines, their staunchness of build, and fineness of finish. Mr. Quayle is now enjoying, in his elegant home, in the society of his wife, that peace and repose which is only earned by a well-spent life. Both being of artistic tastes, they have surrounded themselves with many beautiful works of art. Starting in life without any peculiar advantages, he has, by the development of his natural ability, application, perseverance, and integrity, combined with the thoroughness with which he accomplished all his work, attained to his pres- ent position, and has the happiness of seeing his sons follow after him in a well-established, large, and profitable business. It is to such men as Mr. Quayle that our country is largely in- debted for its manufacturing enterprises and development. Though now somewhat advanced in years, he is still in the enjoyment of good health, with the prospect of many years of life before him.
SESSIONS, FRANCIS C., president of the Commer- cial National Bank, Columbus, Ohio, was born in South Wil- braham, Massachusetts, February 27th, 1820. He is a son of Francis and Sophronia (Metcalf) Sessions, the former a native of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and the latter of Leba- non, Connecticut. His paternal grandfather, Robert Sessions, was a clerk in Boston in 1773, and was one of the "forty or fifty" spoken of by the historian Bancroft as being the men who took part in the celebrated "Boston Tea Party." Among the maternal relatives of Mr. Sessions we note Mary Ruggles, his grandmother, a sister of Benjamin Ruggles, three terms United States Senator from Ohio, being first elected in 1815. Darius Sessions, another relative, was governor of Rhode Island at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and his labor and zeal in behalf of the freedom of the colonists are a part of the history of that period. The subject of our sketch suffered the loss of his father when but two years of age. Subsequently he made his home with his uncle,. Robert Sessions, where he was employed at manual labor on a farm, alternated with attendance at the common- schools during the winter season. His tastes and prefer- ences in boyhood and youth were very largely for intellectual pursuits, and, in consequence, he availed himself of every opportunity for the study of good books and for the perusal of general literature. In 1838 he graduated at Monson State Institution. He was now prevented from taking the collegiate course, which had been his ambition, by ill health, which rendered a sedentary life no longer possible. He next turned his attention to the Great West, then being rapidly populated by Eastern emigration. In 1840 he came to Co- lumbus and accepted a clerkship in a store. Three years after he formed a copartnership with Mr. Ellis for mercan- tile purposes, which continued for two years, when he pur- chased the interest of his partner, continuing the business until 1856, when he sold his store and engaged in the wool trade. Since the establishment of the Commercial bank in 1869 he has been its president and principal business manager. During the late civil war Mr. Sessions rendered valuable services to the sanitary commission, which ren- dered such aid to the federal army, being noted for his un- tiring energy and zeal in behalf of the sick and wounded. Their reports make especial mention of his kindness and philanthropy in a way that is highly commendatory. All through life Mr. Sessions has manifested an exceedingly charitable and benevolent nature, and, in consequence, has
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